I watched my first Bond movie (I believe it was Dr. No) when I was about nine or ten. I know it was probably not very appropriate but those were my parents, the ones who took me to a drive-in showing of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at the tender age of six (to be fair they thought I would fall asleep. I didn't). Anyway, I LOVED Bond. This started a life long love of the Bond movies. I adored Connery, Liked Moore a lot, Didn't like Dalton very well, tolerated Brosnan and thought Craig was a brilliant choice. I have seen them all more than twice. For some reason I never bothered with the books. I guess I thought the movies were so goofy and unrealistic that I would sprain my eyes rolling them while reading. Finally I saw eleven of the Fleming novels at a used book store for a song...Oh, why not?
The book Bond is fairly different from the movie Bond. The book Bond is kind of a giant, sexist asshole. I am also pretty sure he is probably a sociopath. That being said I still enjoyed reading about Bond's exploits. He was less ultra capable in the book, which was nice, and there was no super cool gadgets either. I don't know if they come later or if that is just the movies. Then there was this.
"My name's Felix Leiter," said the American. "Glad to meet you"
"Mine's Bond--James Bond"
"Oh yes", said his companion, "and now let's see. What shall we have to celebrate?"
"A dry Martini," he said, "One. In a deep champagne goblet."
"Oui, Monsieur"
"Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon-peel. Got it?"
That is just made out of awesome.
The book is pretty good. Probably not quite enough plot for the length of the book and the characters were not as strong as I would hope. On the other hand it moves right along and is entertaining throughout. I will definitely continue reading my way through the Bond novels.
4/5 stars (this is probably a three star book for most people but it gets an extra star because I am a fanboy)